Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Raises Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 301.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,374,570 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,283,525 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 2.3% of Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,369,240,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 56,417 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,244 shares during the last quarter. Knollwood Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Knollwood Investment Advisory LLC now owns 55,393 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,338,000 after purchasing an additional 733 shares during the last quarter. LRT Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. LRT Capital Management LLC now owns 10,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,218,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Clarity Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 29.2% during the fourth quarter. Clarity Asset Management Inc. now owns 442 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Financial Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,010,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, HSBC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $420.00 price objective (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at $2,923,235.59. This trade represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.00, for a total transaction of $38,862.00. Following the sale, the director owned 18,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,132,701. The trade was a 0.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 191,966 shares of company stock valued at $16,963,968 over the last quarter. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s drone unit Wing expanded its Walmart partnership into seven more U.S. cities, pushing the service toward nearly 20 markets and signaling that drone delivery is moving from experiment to scalable business. Alphabet’s Most Overlooked Division Just Had a Big Week
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo launched a new $29.99 monthly membership program with perks for frequent riders, a move that suggests the robotaxi business is building recurring revenue on top of rapid ride-growth. Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month, starting in select cities
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen raised its price target on Alphabet, adding to the bullish analyst backdrop and supporting the view that the stock still has room to run. Alphabet (GOOGL) Among Our Good Stocks to Buy Now
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and other commentary highlighted Alphabet as a long-term AI beneficiary, especially as rising model costs could strengthen demand for Google Cloud and infrastructure. Anthropic’s Priciest AI Model Yet Is Here. Why Alphabet and Amazon Will Benefit.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet sued an alleged Chinese cybercrime group accused of using Google’s AI tools to run scam operations, which shows the company is actively defending its platform but is not likely to move the stock much on its own. Google sues alleged Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to send scam texts
• Neutral Sentiment: Some investors noted that Altimeter Capital fully exited its Alphabet stake in Q1, but this appears more like portfolio repositioning than a company-specific warning. Billionaire Brad Gerstner Dumped All of His Alphabet Then Bought 2 Stocks Nobody Expected

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $359.68 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $360.45 and its 200-day moving average is $330.34. The stock has a market cap of $4.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $162.00 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.71%.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.